Senate budget has local projects

The state would chip in another $2.5 million for a rowing complex under construction in Sarasota County and $10 million for a new regional Department of Transportation operations center if the Senate budget figures released Wednesday survive the appropriations process.

Sarasota County lawmakers also are working to insert $3 million into the state budget to help replace septic tanks along Phillippi Creek.

The Senate released detailed budget figures Wednesday. House leaders will not put out similar numbers until next week. Any budget allocations must be approved by both chambers and survive Gov. Rick Scott’s veto pen.

Scott approved $5 million for the rowing center last year after vetoing the allocation the previous year.

The additional state rowing funding is a top priority for lawmakers representing Sarasota and Manatee Counties.

“It’s a unique venue for all of North America,” said state Rep. Ray Pilon, R-Sarasota.

The money would help complete the next phase of the rowing center. Nearly $25 million in state and county money already has been spent to reshape the land around the park, create an island and dredge racing lanes. Another $20 million is needed to construct a boathouse and other buildings, money that was expected to come largely from private donors.

Pilon said rowing boosters have delivered on all their promises so far and the additional state money will help ensure the facility is capable of hosting the 2017 World Rowing Championships if the bid is awarded locally.

“It really can’t be done entirely by the local government and can’t be done entirely by business,” he said.

But the rowing center funding is likely to come under fire as a budget earmark, or “turkey,” slang for questionable local spending projects.

While noting that lawmakers must “make sure we’re getting good value for taxpayers’ dollars,” Rep. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, said the budget turkey label is unfair.

“The ripple effect of what we’re doing will be of great value to the state of Florida, not just the local communities, because it will bring world-class rowing to the state,” said Rouson, whose district stretches into Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Lawmakers were less familiar with the $10 million proposal for a Sarasota-Manatee Department of Transportation operations center.

The money was requested by the DOT and included in the Senate’s budget but not Scott’s budget.

A brief budget summary released Wednesday said the money would initiate the design and construction of a 50,600-square-foot center. The new operations center would consolidate 30 existing maintenance and construction buildings into 10. The center would house 78 employees. There is no mention of where the complex would be located.

According to the DOT, the money requested is for the first of two phases, covering the cost of an 18,000-square-foot administration building, 2,000 square feet of which would be an emergency operations center.

The second phase would add nine buildings for $8.95 million.

The agency said there are 64 positions at the operations center.

The money was requested by the DOT and included in the Senate's budget but not Scott's budget.

Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, was working Wednesday to get the Phillippi Creek money included in the budget.

The septic replacement program has been supplemented on and off with state dollars for more than a decade. The $3 million request would help fund some of the final phases of the project, which is intended to remove pollution from the creek that drains into Sarasota Bay.

The chairman of the Senate committee in charge of local government budget requests said that he plans to make the Phillippi Creek project a priority, but the Senate has yet to determine which requests will make the final cut.

“We’re all trying to protect the environment,” Detert said. “Any community where you have septic tanks leaking into the bay we want that stopped.”

Last modified: March 20, 2013
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